


One Soul

by studentwriter666



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21871201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/studentwriter666/pseuds/studentwriter666
Summary: Continuation of The Rise of SkywalkerRey thinks she's found a way to bring Ben back from the dead, but at what cost.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 60
Kudos: 175





	1. Chapter One: Hope

With the old woman walking off, and the dual suns setting in the horizon, Rey let out a soft gasp as tears began to trickle down her cheeks. She was alone, finally alone. Her duty as a fighter, a ray of hope, the last Jedi, it was over, and now she could finally mourn. Her knees buckled beneath her and she fell to the ground, hands digging in to the warm Tatooine sand as silent tears flowed in a torrent, collecting along her jaw and dropping to the sand. She couldn’t get the image of his smile out of her head. The smile of a man, not a scared boy in over his head, tempted by the dark, but a man. A man who finally knew his place in the galaxy, his place with the light, and his place at her side. That smile of pure happiness as he felt the first pieces of warmth from another being in so long. He’d been in pain, so much pain from Sidious’ attack, from his fall. She had sensed the gravity of his injuries, and yet he’d smiled, knowing he was laying down his life for her. He’d known, they both had, that despite everything, they’d loved each other all along. 

Rey looked at her trembling palm, wishing deep inside that she had taken his hand long ago, because when he’d had the courage to make right his mistakes, and she’d had the courage to show him love despite them, it had been fleeting. Those few moments spent in eachothers arms, holding each other for the first time, kissing each other for the first time, would now be some of the happiest and most painful memories of her life. How cruel life had been to make them one soul, divided by two bodies, only to have that other piece of her torn away, leaving a hole she knew would never close.

“Ben…” She whispered softly on the breeze. “Where are you? Find me. Please.” She’d seen Luke. She’d seen Leia. But she had yet to see him. Why hadn’t he come to her. There was too much left unsaid.

Suddenly the sound of a speeder racing towards her made her stand. She rigorously wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and adjusted the bag slung around her shoulders.

Chewbacca pulled up in front of her, waving his hands and calling out with annoyance.

Rey hopped on the back of the speeder, behind him. “I’m sorry Chewie, I forgot I still had the credits with me.”

Chewie grumbling, before racing back towards Mos Eisley.

Rey sniffled, resting her cheek against the fur of his back, looking up at the dazzling hues of the setting sky. “That’s fine, I’ll just pay the repairman when we get to the cantina.”

***

Rey took a seat at the cantina bar, eyes scanning the crowd for the mechanic she’d hired to finish off some final repairs for the Falcon before their flight to Taris. Chewie had returned to the ship where Finn waited, leaving her to pay the mechanic.

She sighed, unable to spot the Mon Calamari mechanic, and turned to the bartender to order herself a drink. The air was heavy with smoke as the Devaronian bartender slipped her a glass of blue milk. In the far corner of the room a small band played. Voices rose and fell as all manner of species drank, danced, and gambled.

“On Lothal? No, no, that Jedi Temple sunk into the sands long ago. Don’t bother going, you won’t find what you’re looking for.”

That name, it sounded familiar, as if she’d heard of the Jedi temple of Lothal before. Somewhere. Rey turned to see two figures in dark hoods speaking next to her. She couldn't help herself and turned to them, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear but -”

“Hey girl, mind your own business. Eavesdropping gets people killed in this place.” The figure threw back their hood to reveal an elderly man with long white hair scowling at her. The other figure quickly scurried off, much to the old man's exasperation. “Now look what you did. You cost me a client.”

Rey scooted closer to the man, staring at the wrinkles on his bearded face curiously, “What would someone want with an old Jedi Temple?”

The man pursed his lips, looking back at her with narrow eyes before letting out a sigh and extending his hand expectantly.

Rey rolled her eyes, pulling out some credits from her bag and handing them over to the man, his face lighting up. “Usually it’s kyber crystals, that’s what that guy wanted, but in the empires hayday, they really wanted that temple, and I mean, occupy the planet and try to take the whole temple type wanting it. Rumour had it the Jedi had time portals in there.” The man shrugged, taking a sip of his purple drink. “I don’t really believe that stuff myself but-”

Before the man could finish Rey had raced out of the cantina.

***

“That mechanic was garbage,” Finn smiled, popping his head out from one of the control vents on the floor as Rey raced aboard the Falcon. “You could have done a better job.” She sped past him in to a small cargo hold at the far end of the ship. He watched, straining his neck, as she dropped to her knees, pulling out one of the worn and aged Jedi texts and flipping through the pages frantically. “Hey what’s going on? Are we still doing that transport run on Taris?”

She stopped flipping, her hand skimming a set of pages with urgency before suddenly stopping. “No! We’re going to Ahch-To!” 

Chewie poked his head out of the ships cockpit, yelling out a confused cry.

Finn hopped out of the vent with a raised brow. “Chewie’s right. Why Ahch-To? What about bringing these ship parts to Taris for Poe?”

Rey shook her head, getting to her feet, the text stretched out in her hands as her eyes continued to gloss over the pages. “No, we have to go to Ahch-To. Now. I need to get to that temple.” She shut the book, racing towards the cockpit.

Finn followed her as she took a seat next to Chewie, setting the text down next to her before frantically flipping the controls and preparing the ship for take off. He crouched down beside her seat, hand resting on the co-pilot's chair. “Wait a minute. You said when you returned to the island you found it burnt.”

Slowly the ship began to ascend over the port, their Mon Calamari mechanic waving his fist angrily at them from docking bay 94.

The corner of Rey's lips twitched slightly, threatening a smile. The smile of relief as she caught his eye after returning from Exogol had been the last smile he’d seen flashed across her face. Since that day, a week ago, she hadn’t been the same. Something had happened on Exogol that she wouldn’t discuss, but he knew, whatever it was, that it had changed her. 

She leaned across Chewie, unhappy with his pace, and began flipping controls on his side of the ship's control panel, much to his displeasure. “There was another temple. I think. Inside the island. It called to me once but showed me nothing, only myself. I need to try again. I need to go back.” 

Finn took a seat behind her, strapping himself in for their jump to hyperspace. “What’s there?”

Slowly she pulled the lever, watching as thousands of stars passed by in streaks. “Hope.”


	2. Chapter Two: There Must Be a Way

Rey walked down the ship's ramp with hurried steps, staying beneath its cover as torrential rain poured down from the night sky of Ahch-To. She looked back down at the text in the glow coming from the ship. It was there, in a language she couldn’t read, but intricately drawn upon the page was a familiar image. A cliffs ledge situated at the open mouth of a cave. Waves lapping at it. At the centre a hole from where vines of mangled looking seaweed crawled forth.

Rey clutched the book to her chest and closed her eyes, letting the sound of the rain envelop her. Here, in this very place, she had felt him. The red glow of his mind pushing around the edges of hers, wanting admittance. His voice and thoughts transcending the space between them to echo off the walls of her mind. It had also been here, on this island, with a similar downpour, that through their bond she’d accidentally sent him something; rain water. 

She heard Finn’s footsteps behind her and let out a deep sigh, closing the text and turning around. His expression was riddled with worry. “Rey, what happened on that planet?”

She looked away from him and out at the charred wreckage of the ship she had tried to destroy in an attempt to maroon herself on the island. She couldn’t look in his pained eyes any longer. “I have my friends. I have you. I have this family that I’ve created, who love me and care about me, but there has been some part of me that’s felt so lonely in my struggle for guidance, in my struggle to understand the force, and the powers bestowed on me.” She looked back at him, her eyes twinkling in the ship lights as they threatened tears, “I know you won’t understand, but Ben took that feeling away. When he was trying to find me, so desperately on Pasaana and on Kijimi, it wasn’t to kill me. I see that now. It was to help me, to save me, to show me that although his offer still stood to join him, it wasn’t to join Kylo Ren, it was to join Ben Solo.” She clutched the text tighter in her grip as a tear spilled past her lashes, trailing down her cheek. “We both realized that too late.” She handed him the text, wiping her tear away gently with her fingertips, “He died to save me. I can’t let his story end there.” 

With that she pulled up her hood and stepped out into the rain, clothing becoming soaked immediately as she trecked her way past the wrecked ship and past the stone huts.

There had to be a way to bring him back.

***

She shivered as she stepped into the cave. Violent waves crashed against its edge sending sprays of ocean water up in the air. Rey took a step closer towards the inky tendrils of the seaweed at the mouth of the entrance.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Rey spun her body, yellow lightsaber already in her hand, feet already posed for threat. But she instantly lowered her weapon as a familiar face, cast in a soft blue glow, looked back at her.

“I need to fix things. He deserved better. He deserved more than a few moments of love and happiness.” She holstered her saber angrily, taking a step back towards the cave entrance in defiance of what she knew he was thinking.

Luke frowned, eyes following her step. “You don’t know what you’re messing with if you go down there kid. Time travel is complicated, and dangerous. You have the potential to undo everything, everything that happened in that temple. Do you really want that?” He took a step closer, his eyes suddenly reflecting pity, “Accept that he’s gone Rey. He has passed from the realm of the physical force, to the realm of the cosmic force. He’s gone. Can’t you accept that that love and happiness was enough.”

She shook her head with flushed cheeks, “I can’t. He needs to know he deserved more. Deserves more. All he ever wanted was love and acceptance. I want to give it to him. I need that smile again.” She took another step backwards, feet crunching on the wet seaweed, ocean spray splashing her already soaking back.

Luke crossed his arms with a scowl, “You want. Do you want him back for yourself, or for him? Let him rest in the cosmic force.”

She took another step back, feeling the edge of the abyss with the heel of her foot. “I’ll turn back now, leave this island, and never shed another tear for what could have been if you tell me where he is. Why he hasn’t appeared to me. Why despite feeling this tremendous ache of loss it’s like,” she lay her hand on heart as she began to cry, “it’s like I still sense him, out there, somewhere. Please Luke, explain it to me because I need to know.”

Luke opened his mouth as if to speak, but closed it with defeat. “I don’t…”

Rey didn’t wait for another word before taking a final step backwards. She fell through the air, body landing into the icy water below with a splash. She floated to the surface, sucking in a jagged gasp for breath. Teeth chattering she swam to the shore and slowly got to her feet.

Before her lay the same shimmering wall of reflective stone she had sought out what felt like ages ago. She could see herself reflected back. The granddaughter of evil. The savior of the war. The last Jedi. Now a Skywalker. She had found her story, found herself, and found family since she was last in this very spot. But she too had lost.

With hesitation she reached her pale hand up, extending her fingertips out towards the glistening stone, only to have them disappear. She turned nervously to look behind her as she felt a pull in her chest calling her forward. With a deep breath she stepped forward.

She blinked, unsure if what she was seeing was right. The other side was pitch black, as if she had stepped into a void or abyss. She wasn’t sure where the surface below her feet began and the space around her ended. Enveloping the air around was this tremendous, unseen, energy. As if a storm of force energy raged within the blackness. Floating around her were glowing triangles encircled with intricate designs. At the center of each were pearlescent spheres depicting scenes. Some she did not recognize. The soft features of a beautiful woman, her hair in voluminous curls around her face, hands crossed upon her stomach, a small token tucked under her fingers. She was being carried through a crowd of mourners in a grand funeral procession. Others she was able to piece together, like the image of her father, crying tears of sorrow as he cradled the pregnant stomach of her mother. Most of them were memories reflected back to her with clarity, like the moment she’d found a curious little droid amidst the sweeping sands of Jakku.

The next portal in time stopped her in her tracks. She lay unconscious, her strength drained from her. Next to her lay Ben, sweat soaked strands of his ebony hair hanging over his bloody face. He was struggling feebly to get up. She could see the resolution in his pained eyes. He had come to save her, and he wasn’t going to let anything stop him.

Suddenly Luke’s scowl obscured her view. “Turn around kid. Go back.”

She buried her face in her trembling hands, the scene stirring up a swelling anguish in her chest. “Please tell me what to do. How to do it. I know there must be a way. Luke I’m begging you.”


	3. Chapter Three: Trust Me

The wrinkles around Luke's eyes deepened as he gave Rey a sympathetic frown of contemplation before taking a deep breath, “This place," he gestured to the blackness enveloping them, "is the world between worlds. A place of the cosmic force. In part it is a conduit through which the entire force of the universe flows. These are time portals, as I'm sure you guessed from the texts. They have shown you moments of significance to your fate. If you enter one, you must use the utmost care not to interfere with events as they are meant to happen. Aside from one, and you must choose wisely."

Rey looked up at Luke with hopeful eyes, a sudden plan springing in to her mind, "Can't I just pull him through?"

Luke shook his head, "No kid, he needs to be there to save your life. The decision you make must be carefull, and deliberate.” He gestured to the portal behind him, “If you choose this moment, it will tempt your resolve to make drastic changes, but you must resist. Do what you can, with little interference.”

She took a step towards him, trying to understand why he’d tried to stop her one moment, then helped her the next, “Why are you telling me this master Skywalker?”

Luke sighed, reaching out and placing both of his translucent hands on Rey’s shoulders. They felt weightless there. “Because you were right. He isn't here, and I don't know where he is. He should be here, on this plane with his mother and father, but he is not. I fear for him. And...” he cast his eyes to the ground with shame, “he deserved more from me.”

“Luke I…” before she could finish her sentence he vanished, leaving her alone in the void, the same terrible scene playing out in front of her, the same desperate attempts to get up, “...don’t know what to do…”

She watched with trembling lips as he faltered to stand again. How could she save them both without drastically changing the past. The pearlescent sphere began to shimmer as the portals triangular parameters suddenly started to glow, almost as if inviting her in. Closing her eyes, taking a deep breath, and trusting in the force to guide her, she sprinted forward. 

***

Her eyes sprang open, heart racing with adrenaline as she jumped to her feet, looking around at her surroundings. She was outside of the Sith temple, near Luke’s X-Wing. Above the skies raged. Lightening and thunder flickered violently against the backdrop of the battle overhead. They were outnumbered, and failing fast. Aid had not yet arrived. 

The sudden sound of a TIE fighter arriving threw Rey into the shadows of the X-Wing. It landed close by, door flying open as a familiar figure jumped out on to the cracked and desolate earth of the putrid planet. No longer adorned as a killer, as a villain, as a supreme leader, but as a man, come to save her, the girl he’d heard so much about. Ben’s dark locks and thin sweater blew in the violent winds. He’d come armed with only a blaster; his lightsaber, the lightsaber of Kylo Ren, forsaken.

She sucked in a sharp breath, wanting nothing more than to run to him and to hold him, but she knew she couldn’t. She ducked further in to the shadows of Luke’s ship as Ben paused, glancing in her direction as if he’d heard or sensed something, before sprinting headlong into the temples shadows.

Unsure of what to do she followed with silent steps as he ran, racing with every stride to get to her. Running in to the temple again she felt the same sense of overbearing dread. The same feeling of a weight, the dark, crushing down upon her. She watched in the flickering lights of the raging storm streaming through the open sections of the temple as he launched himself suddenly through the air, jumping and grabbing hold of a set of enormous chain links that descended down into the depths of the temple where she knew, at that very moment, Palpatine was enticing her, using the danger of the Resistance fleet and the longing for family she’d yearned for her entire life to tempt her to the dark. 

She couldn’t follow Ben directly as he painstakingly slid down the metal links, grunting in pain as his ungloved hands suffered from the descent. He would see her if she followed, all hope of keeping the future intact would be gone. Her eyes darted around frantically searching for a way down, a way unseen. In the shadowy distance she could see a similar opening in the ground leading down to Palpatine's throne room. Sparing a final glance down at Ben she ran towards the opening, leaping through the air as Ben had, and slowly sliding down the chain, trying to keep her body position away from him as she stretched out the tendrils of her mind to follow his movements.

Possible ways to save him flashed across her consciousness as she carefully moved downwards, the skin on her palms becoming raw. He had given what life force he had to save her. If she could just prevent injury from befalling him wouldn’t he be stronger? No, that couldn’t work, she had needed all of his life force to live. He had given it. Given it freely, knowing what he was doing. She quickened her decent as she felt him reach the bottom, the Knights of Ren waiting, having sensed the arrival of their former master, now their adversary. She could try to kill Palpatine. Kill him before her past self could exhaust her life, but again no, that influence would have unforeseen ramifications.

She reached the bottom, jumping off the links and hitting the floor. She bolted towards the sound of blaster fire. He was trying to defend himself fiercely from the six Knights surrounding him. She had learned of the Knights origins as she’d pushed in to the red glow of Ren’s mind on Starkiller base. They had been former pupils of Luke Skywalker, recruited after Luke’s betrayal and the fall of his training camp. The force wielding Knights had pledged themselves to Ren. The price for their servitude had been the removal of their tongues, leaving them mute and subservient, until that moment.  
In the shadows of looming stone carvings of the Siths of old, Rey extended her arm and closed her eyes, concentrating on the six bodies bubbling with chaotic force energy, their minds set upon the annihilation of their former master. She imagined in her mind's eye the green glow of her consciousness, imagined it enveloping their chaotic energy, inhibiting them from using their force abilities on Ben until they no longer could.

Her whole body shook as she struggled to repress the force within them, and then suddenly she heard his voice. She almost faltered, but managed to maintain composure as the deep baritone of his articulation reverberated softly upon the walls of her tensed mind.

“Don’t listen to him. We can save them, save them all. Together. Trust me. Please. It’s okay, I’m here. Trust me.”

A shiver ran down her spine as those last pleading words, trust me, echoed in her head with pained remembrance. Hearing them had made her want to cry. In that moment she had realized two things. The first was that at last Kylo Ren was gone. The fear, shame and hurt Ren had carried with him was gone. He was no longer Kylo Ren, grandson of Darth Vader, master of the Knights of Ren, and Supreme Leader of the First Order. No, that person had died, faded out of existence as he faced the memory of his father, voice cracking as he struggled to tell Han he loved him, but only managing to whisper, dad I... In his place stood Ben Solo, Son of Captain Han Solo and General Leia Organa, and Prince of Alderaan, come to protect, help, and save her. The second revelation was that, as much as she struggled to bear the burden of the force, and the conflict between light and dark within her, she realized she no longer had to do it alone.

The force bond connecting their bodies and minds was still acting on her present self, as if she was attuned to their frequency. The thoughts passing between them now passed through her with clarity. Her past mind, her present mind, and his mind all interconnected somehow. Still struggling to keep the Knights weakened, she closed off her mind to them, building up mental barriers so that neither of them would know she was there to ensure that events occurred as they should.

“I trust you,” Her thoughts passed to him with relief and comfort. “My lightsaber, Luke’s lightsaber, it’s yours.” It had begun with droplets of rain, trickled in to his gloved hand. Then on a stormy night, as she struggled to understand her place, struggled to comprehend how a scared young boy with growing powers had been betrayed by his master, she had seen him before her, as clear as the small fire crackling with warmth within the stone hut. He’d called to her with understanding, listening eagerly as she had relayed those moments of confusion within the islands hidden cave. And then in a test of their bond they had reached out, literally and figuratively, through time and space, and finally touched each other, touched another being able to understand their collective loneliness and their collective conflict in understanding the powers they had been born with. The strength of their mental connection was pushed to its limits as they fought both on the ground and in the skies of Kajimi, transmitting to one another components from each others surroundings in to a composite mental battleground where they could physically clash. It all had led to this moment, where sensing his combat with the Knights and realizing exactly what Luke had foreseen, she projected Luke's lightsaber from her hand, passing through their minds, and reappearing in his firm grasp, “It always has been.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you SO much to all you incredible readers. The response to the first two chapters have been overwhelming! I am so grateful for each and every reader, and I hope I can do justice in soothing our collective heartache.
> 
> All my love.
> 
> J.


	4. Chapter Four: He Had Followed His Heart, and Not His Hate

With a gesture of invitation, combat began. Ben no longer fought in a style fueled by anger and savagery, but rather with calm deliberation as he faced down the Knights. Rey gritted her teeth as she struggled to maintain her hold on the Knights powers from the shadows, each death releasing the tension of her focus. With a final thrust of the blue saber Ben took off again, running to the throne room where he knew she was struggling.

Rey's heart raced as she followed, understanding she would have to helplessly watch what was about to unfold as she tucked herself at the base of another imposing statue of a long dead Sith lord. In the lightning lit throne room Ben struck down her last opponent then paused. Rey closed her eyes and took a deep breath, leaning her head back against the cold stone as she collected herself. She remembered exactly how she had felt in that moment, seeing him charge in, emanating the light that had emerged from within. His expression one of pure determination. She’d looked back at him with disbelief, both their chests rising and falling in unison, almost unwilling to comprehend that he was there, truly there, that all the hope and faith she had held for him all this time was not for not for nothing.

Rey peaked silently around the massive statue to see Ben take his stand at her side. “Together?” He asked in his deep voice through their mental connection, remembering in that moment what Rey had said, riding with cuffs locked around her wrists in an elevator to face Snoke’s judgement, and knowing it was true. He would turn. And she would help him.

Now it was time for him to help her.

“Together.” She whispered back towards the red glow of his consciousness before, united as one, they turned to stare down Palpatine where he hovered in darkness before his throne, and raised their lightsabers, blue glows casting their faces in light.

Palpatine grimaced, the deep set wrinkles in his decaying flesh deepened as he sneered down upon them, “Stand together, die together!” his decrepit voice echoed off the stone halls as the bony claws of his fingers rose up, sending their lightsabers flying from their grip and entrapping them within his mental grasp.

Knowing what would occur, Rey reached out with her mind just as the lightsabers left their hands, stopping the sabers from being flung too far across the hallowed throne room. They had to remain close. Her past self would need them, desperately need them both to kill Palpatine once and for all. Anticipating her next act of aid she began to run towards the cavernous crack in the throne room where Ben would be flung down. She had seen flashes of that moment, both in the glimmers of the time portal, but also playing out in Ben’s mind, the moment he had revived her. She needed to ensure he would survive that fall.

Almost there she suddenly stumbled, falling to the ground as she felt a sharp pain radiate through her chest and then leave. She bit down on her lip trying to stop herself from crying aloud at the piercing pain. Her connection to her past self was stronger than she had anticipated. Not only was she able to eavesdrop upon the mental component of her force bond with Ben, but she too could feel the flow of the force itself being sucked from her body, her past body. Gripping on to a stone pillar beside her Rey slowly pulled herself to her feet, the words of Palpatine’s dydad revelation echoing around the temple from his deteriorated lips.

She tried to take a few more steps towards the pit before suddenly collapsing, the pain returning tenfold, brachiating out through her body like poison in her veins. The pull on her life force was not as strong as on her past self. She wasn’t left paralysed by the pain, but she could feel herself weakening, almost as if she were bleeding out. She couldn't let it stop her. She wouldn't. She began to crawl; every movement exhausting her as she took labored breaths.

Abruptly cheers erupted all around making her jump as the malicious chorus of Palpatine's Sith followers rose up in a cacophony. She continued crawling, staying in the shadows, body growing weaker until the burrowing in her chest ceased. It made no matter, the damage had been done. She feebly got to her feet once again, limping until she got to the pit, knowing she had to act fast. Peering down with exhausted breaths she could see no end to its depths, only rocky ledges and outcroppings along its descending parameters.

Rey glanced across the temple to see in obscured detail their bodies, laying side by, bathed in the horrifying glow of lightning as it continued to flash, now coming from above through an opening in the temple ceiling. Rey watched with anticipation as Ben, who had been laying on his back, slowly turned to look at her unconscious form next to him. Keeping his eyes locked on her with concern he got to his knees with difficulty before looking up in defiance of Palpatine, the man who had manipulated him, the man who had tortured him, and now the man who threatened to take away the one spark of love in his life. But before he could make another move Palpatine, with a flick of his wrist, lifted Ben up off the ground in his immovable cerebral hold. Rey’s eyes glazed over with tears, her heart swelling as she felt Ben’s worry for her exuding off of him in waves. 

“As once I fell,” Palpatine boomed in his weathered voice, “so falls the last Skywalker.” With that Ben went flying through the air, and so did Rey's hands, prepared to catch his fall. Before she could guide his landing a blade suddenly came flying at her face. Dodging backwards Rey pushed her attacker back with her mind. It was one of Snoke’s guards. Their red armour reflecting back the continued lightning strikes that lit up the temple from within. As if his body was hers she felt Ben fall roughly against the fissure’s stoney ledge. She had her lightsaber but feared using it due to its conspicuousness, so thinking fast, another swing of the guards blade slashing through the air towards her chest, Rey stretched out one hand towards Ben as he tumbled through the air, and stretched out her other, catching the blade mid-swing.

He was unconscious from the impact as she split her mind between the two tasks, body shaking and sweating from the strain as she tried to both safely guide Ben towards one of the cracks inner ledges, while staving off her attacker who had pulled back and swung again. Unwilling to draw attention to the small skirmish Rey still refused to use her lightsaber, instead pulling the blade right from the guards grip and quickly slashing them in the gut, pushing their remains back, and turning all her attention as she brought Ben’s body falling gently upon a rocky ledge. Hiding in the darkness she stumbled over towards the precipice to look down, just as the entire temple was flooded by a violent spark of light. Her eyes darted to her past self just as she slowly opened her eyes to look up at the carnage being enacted upon the Resistance fleet from the volatile electricity emanating out of Palpatine's fingertips. She had never seen such power before.

Exhausted Rey clung to a large piece of cracked stone slab beside her, catching her breath. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

_ “These are your final steps, Rey. Rise and take them.” _

She heard the words spoken in her mind just as clearly as she had in that moment, looking up with waning hope, only to have the Jedi that had come before her finally speak.

“Get up,” Rey whispered under her breath as she stared at her past self, tears slipping past her lashes. “Get up.” All her life she had felt this unbearable loneliness and want for meaning. That loneliness has been eradicated, with Ben’s sacrifice the final piece that had put her back together, but at this juncture, hearing the Jedi call to her, encourage her, beseech her to follow the light and do what must be done to restore balance, she had finally found her meaning.

_ “Bring back the balance Rey, as I did.” _

It was to return balance to the galaxy, just as the chosen one had done before her, and just as she would do now.

_ “Find the light.” _

_ “Alone, never have you been.” _

_ “Every Jedi who ever lived, lives in you.” _

_ “The force surrounds you Rey.” _

_ “Let it guide you, as it guided us.” _

_ “Feel the force flowing through you, Rey.” _

_ “Let it lift you.” _

_ “Rise Rey.” _

She rolled onto her side, bringing her hand to the ground, questioning whether she would be capable of what she knew she had to do. 

_ “We stand behind you Rey.” _

_ “Rey.” _

_ “Rey.” _

She twisted her body, bracing her weight on her hands and knees.

_ “Rise in the force.” _

Slowly, painstakingly, she began to push herself up.

_ “In the heart of the Jedi lies your strength.” _

Rey lifted herself, supporting her body now with her feet, using the chants of the Jedi’s voices,  _ “Rise Rise Rise, _ ” to bolster her, lift her up off the ground, and to finally stand.

_ “Rey, the force will be with you. Always.” _

With strain she steadied her feet, Leia’s lightsaber flying in to her waiting hand. It flickered to life instantly as she poised herself to end this war, end the darks eminence, and to kill Darth Sidious at last.

Rey turned back to the pit in time to watch Ben spit a mouthful of blood on to the ground as he heaved with coughs on his dirtied hands and knees. “Okay,” she whispered, “you can do this. I’m going to need you Ben. I’m going to need you like I’ve never needed anyone before. You have to make it up.” With a strain matching the one she had just endured to get to her feet, Ben stood, and instantly looked up the fissures cliff face and in her directly. Rey dashed back, away from the ledge, hand resting on her heart. She had to be more careful. He must be sensing her presence somehow. 

Rey closed her eyes as tears of frustration trailed down her already wet cheeks. How was she to do this. Luke had explained the world between worlds and the dangers of what she had embarked on, but she needed more guidance. How could she save Ben and still maintain the precarious balance of time. Time. She hadn’t much left, as the moment of Ben's sacrifice loomed, drawing nearer and nearer with no solution yet in her mind. Time felt so fleeting in that moment as her past self took a step towards Palpatine, pushing back with Leia’s saber against his Sith powers, and as Ben, in the depths below, slid his fingers in to a crack in the stone and his foot upon a jutting shard, laboriously beginning his ascension to the surface.

She could feel them, his thoughts. They were mostly focused on carefully maneuvering up the fissure, to get to her, but beneath those was a blanket of devotion. He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t. In so many ways she had been there for him, throughout this whole journey, from the first moment he had felt her awakening in the force, until now. Never had she faltered in her resolve to save him, to free his soul from the darkness that had entrapped him. It was because of her, and her alone that he had been able to reconcile the warring dualities of his nature, and come to terms with the horrible mistakes he had made as a lost and scared boy. For the first time in his life he had followed his heart, and not his hate. No matter the path, no matter the outcome, he was going to do whatever it took to save her.


	5. Chapter Five: Belonging

“AND I, I’M ALL THE JEDI”

A deep breath escaped Rey's lips as an overwhelming sensation suddenly enraptured her.

Palpatine was dead. The scales had been tipped. Balance had been achieved.

Without another thought she dropped down on to one knee, throwing all her focus in to keeping the fissure free of debris. Rey braced herself as the entire Sith temple began to shake and crumble, a blast of energy radiating out in a violent shockwave. The massive stone statues and pillars of the temple began to crack and collapse, large chunks began falling from all directions, the stadium from where the mysterious hooded Sith followers who had revelled in Palpatine's chaos were being smashed apart, killing the onlookers. 

Rey imagined a net, blue and glowing, protecting both her and Ben. It worked, the stone and debris falling past the invisible force fields over both of them as the turmoil all around continued. Ben remained still, trying to press his body as flat against the rocky surface as much as possible, while her past self gazed around the temple in shock.

As soon as it began, it had stopped, leaving an eerie silence hanging in the air. The flashes of lightning outside and within the temple also ceased as the clouds from the storm in the sky above began to part, reflecting down the azure light of dawn.

Wiping the dirt and dust that had slipped past her mental barriers from her face Rey turned to look at herself, and then it came to her. What she needed to do. She was connected to them, both of them, in a way she hadn’t anticipated. If she could hear their thoughts, if she could feel their pain, she too could project through their collective force bond. As once she had reached out her hand alone in a stone hut on Ahch-To, so now she would reach out again. She would save herself, project her hand past his and give her life so that he didn’t have to. She glanced across the temple in time to see her past self, panting with overwhelmed fatigue, suddenly collapse, dead.

As if their two bodies were controlled by the same puppeteer, Rey too began to fall, the ruined temple tipping on it’s side before her blurring vision, until with a thud she fell to the ground, her head hitting the rubble-strewn floor, and everything vanishing in a sea of darkness.

***

Ben reached up towards another crack in the stone, the ledge visible just above him, but his fingers slipped. “No,” he whispered with shaking lips, sweat soaked strands of his dark hair hanging in his face. “No.” He knew exactly what he had felt before he could even formulate the thoughts to comprehend it. What felt like a millenia ago he had been sitting in his chambers in Starkiller Base, tracing the lines of Vader’s distorted helmet as a storm of emotions raged within him. He had just learned that the Resistance was looking for Luke, his former master, the man he had looked up to, the man who had feared him, and the man who would try to kill him; the final nail in his familial betrayal. It was in that moment that he felt a sudden pull in his chest, a slight tugging, an awakening in the force. He had come to learn that it was her, the scavenger, the girl he had heard so much about, the girl he had crossed solar systems for, traversed planets, projected out his mind for, and now, body dangling over the precipice with one hand, he could no longer feel. The familiar rhythm of her heart no longer beat within the ramparts of his mind.

Gritting his teeth and fighting back tears he reached back up, grabbing hold of a jutting rock while putting his uninjured leg in a crack for leverage. He wouldn't accept it. She couldn't be dead.

Finally, his hand reached up and grabbed the ledge, fingers scraping the stone as he used his waning strength to pull himself up. He could see her, her slender body laying in the dirty ground hallowed in the glow from above. His lips trembled with grief as he stumbled, trying to get to his feet before urgently limping towards her fragile frame.

This couldn't be happening.

She couldn't be dead.

He dropped to his knees, heart splitting as he stared into her blank eyes. Gently, so as not to hurt her, he grabbed her forearm, cradling her limp head with the other hand, and tugged her into his lap. Some small part of him had begun to hope that they would make it out of there, together. Despite his emotional repression, despite knowing the complications that would face them, he had let himself dream, dream that he would be able to hold her in his arms as he did now, that she would look up at him with those hazel eyes, and that he would be able to tell her how he felt, something he hadn't been able to say to the memory of his father.

He pulled her listless body, embracing her against his chest as he looked around frantically for someone, anyone who could help. This couldn't be it. This couldn't be how her story ended. He had been wrong, so wrong when he had told her she had no place in this story because it was their story. It always had been. The force had brought them together to fill the empty spaces inside of them both. There was so much he had wanted to say. He had wanted to tell her the immeasurable pain he had endured at her rejection after defeating Snoke's praetorian guard, how chasing her from planet to planet had been his misguided way of trying to warn her against the danger she faced with Palpatine, and how his heart had swelled as she'd healed him upon the destroyed remains of the Death Star, the wreckage reflecting his inner turmoil, her hands upon his torso more than healing his body, but healing his soul too. Healing this small place inside of himself that had known his turn to the dark had been a missguided venture by a scared and lost young boy, lashing out against the isolation he had felt in his adolescence, against the fear he had sensed in both his uncle and his own mother. Rey had never been nothing. She had been everything. She had been everything to him.

Fingers tangled in her soft hair as he supported her head he suddenly realized what he needed to do. As she had healed him, he could heal her. Cradling her like the most important thing in the galaxy he placed a bloody and dirty hand gently upon her torso, closing his eyes, a scar no longer cutting across the left side of his face, and concentrated. He knew. He knew what life force he had left was minimal, but he was willing to give it all for her, the only person, the only sun in a sea of stars, the other half of his soul, that had understood him, so that she may live.

Ben could feel it, the life force leaving his body and entering hers as silent tears streaked down the sweat and dirt on his face. Never had he felt something so powerful. He could move ships and mountains if he wanted to with his mind, but never before had he imagined he could move life itself, from one body to the other. 

Before he sensed the spark of life, the beating of her heart, return to the fragile body in his arms he felt her hand, both weak and strong, gently lay itself over his. Ben’s eyes sprang open, the dark pools of his irises staring down past his wet lashes with overwhelming reprieve as Rey blinked with surprise. With his hand still delicately supporting her neck she sat up, staring up at him with confusion as he melted in those hazel eyes. He couldn’t believe it. She was back. She was really back. 

He had always told himself that he would finish what Darth Vader had started. He couldn’t have imagined that this would be it, saving the one he loved, doing as Vader, as Anakin, never could. It was only by turning away from the dark, and not running towards it as his grandfather had, that had he been able to save her.

A brief moment of silence hung in the air as he looked her over, overwhelmed that she was alive, and then suddenly the corners of her lips turned upwards, her eyes locking on his with relief and happiness.

“Ben,” Rey smiled as she softly rested her hand on his cheek, the sensation of her skin on his easing the ache that had begun to permeate within him.

This feeling. He had never quite felt it before. This overwhelming sense of hope, of love, but most most importantly of belonging. This was it. This was what he had searched for all his life, and it had taken a Jakku scavenger who had seen past the cracks in his mask to show it to him. This is where he belonged. This is where he would always belong. In her arms, and it wasn’t until she had tenderly whispered his name with hopeful and loving dismay that he knew she felt the same way.

This was it wasn’t it. This is how it felt, to love, and be loved in return.

Her hand hovered on his cheek, fingers immeshing themselves in to the sweat-soaked ebony strands of his hair as they both stared at each other, until suddenly, Rey glanced down at his quivering lips, and without another moment crossed the small space between them and brought her mouth to his. Ben wrapped both arms around her longingly, both her hands holding his cheeks, as he kissed her back, savoring the sensation of her soft lips on his, of feeling whole, so completely whole, as if nothing in the galaxy mattered anymore, but this, this small moment of pure bliss, pure hopeful and happy bliss.

Their lips parted as Rey still held his cheek, his arms still wrapped around her, unwilling to let go. A brilliant smile spread across her lips through the silence, that smile speaking paragraphs, expressing to him that everything would be okay, that everything would always be okay from now on. It had come so naturally to him then, the tentative and shy but longing grin that flashed across his pale face along with a soft laugh of optimistic happiness.


	6. Chapter Six: I See You

The cold stone of the temple floor felt comforting against Rey's cheek as she slowly blinked in to consciousness. Her long lashes obscured her blurry view as she peered out of half closed lids at a pair of figures, their forms basking in the light of day, their lips locked in a tender moment of happy respite. The figures pulled apart, staring at each other as if they were the only two people in the galaxy.

Rey sucked in a jagged breath as she watched the scene. This was it, the moment that had haunted her since that day, the moment that had terrorized her dreams, the moment she had felt the other half of her soul torn away from her so abruptly as his body suddenly disappeared. She’d barely been able to fly back to the Resistance base on the jungle moon of Ajan Kloss afterwards, her cries of sorrow in the X-Wing engulfing her as if she’d been drowning, just barely able to keep her head above water.

“No,” Rey whispered, tears beginning to streak down her cheeks as she watched his expression of bliss falter then fade, body tumbling back as her past self gently eased his head to the ground with shock, “No please…” She started to sob as she felt his life force slowly begin to fade. She couldn’t let him die. She wouldn’t. She’d come all this, she’d crossed time for him. She hadn’t expected her body to be affected by her past self so completely that she wouldn’t be able to save herself. But there was one hope left. She could still try and save him. Perhaps this is what was meant to be all along, this interchange of life force between bodies, interconnecting them even more than before. Turning weakly on to her back, unable to get up, she held both palms up in front of her, closing her eyes, focusing her mind, and evening her breathing. “Ben,” She said softly, “Be with me. Be with me.” With concentration she could feel the warm sensation of his body beneath her hands, as if he was truly there, beneath her. Using the contact, she projected her force energy through her hands, and out of her past self, flowing in to him freely, draining her slowly. “Stay with me.” She repeated as she felt her energy deplete until her hands suddenly fell limp at her sides. “Stay with me.”

She hadn’t the strength to turn her head, to see if he was okay, but some part of her knew it didn’t matter. If she had failed, she failed knowing she may now see him on the other side, in the world between worlds, but if she had succeeded, no memory of this would have lasted; they could walk out of their together, hand in hand, as fate had so cruelly tried to prevent. She blinked up with tear soaked eyes at the gaping hole in the temple ceiling, watching as the Resistance fleet began to depart from the Exogol skies, dreadnaughts falling to the surface in blazing wrecks of bygone fury.

Rey felt the onset of her death, breathing becoming shallow, cells turning translucent, but suddenly, in the split second before her clothes fell empty to the floor she saw the faded blue outline of a familiar figure before her, black hair tousled, darks eyes staring back with gratitude, shy smile pulling up the corners of their full lips.

“Thank you.”

***

He could feel the moisture of her tears trailing down her nose and on to his cheek, her face pressed against his as she clutched him, shaking fingers entangled in his knotted hair. His head throbbed with confusion as he realized what had happened.

“Ben!” Rey cried out with happiness, feeling the pulse of his heart, the rise and fall of his chest beneath her. She wiped the tears from her eyes hurriedly with the back of her hand as she leaned back, taking her weight off of him and resting on her calves. She gently took his hand and helped him sit up as she kneeled next to him. “You were going. You were fading, I, I could see through you. You almost left but you didn’t.” The magnitude of the loss she had almost suffered suddenly overwhelmed her as her chest began to heave with tender sobs.

Ben’s pushing his confused thoughts to the recesses of his mind he allowed gentle consolation to take their place as he positioned both his large hands on her cheeks, thumbs delicately wiping her tears away. “I’m not going anywhere.” He brought his forehead to rest against hers as he relished in the feeling of her skin against his, letting out a sigh of relief, his heart feeling lighter than ever. “I’m hard to get rid of, remember?”

She laughed softly, grinning from ear to ear as she sniffled, “I want to laugh and cry all at once.”

The same shy smile streaked across Ben’s lips as he pulled back, unable to keep his eyes off of Rey’s face. “You did it. Palpatine dead, the war won, balance achieved. You did it Rey.”

She shook her head, unwinding her arms from around him and getting up, extending a hand out towards him, “We did it.” Her heart overflowed with euphoria. It was indescribable, the sensation of wholeness, of her heart racing with blissful exhilaration, knowing that balance had been achieved, yes, but that someone she had fought for had given their life for her, almost losing it entirely in the process. And yet here he was, smiling back at her with that foreign smile, using it unabashedly but shyly, like a newborn learning to walk.

He almost wanted to reach up, feel the smile on his face, it’s presence there so strange, so fixed in place that he wasn’t sure it was really there, could really be there. He reached out, taking her hand and pulling himself to his feet, fingers intertwining with hers as he stood, looking with blushing cheeks from their interlocked hands to her childlike grin. 

Rey stared up at the destruction all around, trying to spot a way for them to return to the surface, a way to get out of the forsaken temple, as Ben followed the line of her jaw with his eyes. He knew there were practical things he needed to think about, but he couldn’t help it. He knew this feeling of internal elation and adoration would calm, but for the moment he wanted to relish in it, he wanted to enjoy being happy, knowing that tribulations lay on the horizon for himself as a war criminal.

“How do you suppose we get back up?” Rey asked, her eyes still scanning to see if the enormous chain links were still intact to climb up.

Ben took a deep breath, trying hard to think, to focus, his eyes wandering towards their interlocked hands, and then he realized something. “Rey?”

“Hmm?” She asked, free hand catching Luke’s lightsaber as it came flying in to her palm. She handed it to Ben as she turned towards him.

He attached the saber to his belt before catching Leia’s and handing off to Rey as she smirked. “We are a dyad right? Our abilities in the force are heightened together, as one?”

She nodded in the affirmative with a raised brow of curiosity as to where he was going with his questions. He extened his other hand to her. She beamed, taking it without hesitation, the knowledge overwhelming that doing so was no longer a turn away from the light, no longer an alignment with the enemy, but just a woman taking a mans hand, the feeling completely new to her.

Ben closed his eyes, tuning in to the energy flowing through both of them, its current strong, “Have you floated yourself yet? In your training?”

Rey scoffed playfully, following Bens lead and shutting her eyes, “Of course I ha…” She stopped speaking as she felt her feet slowly lift off the ground with ease. She was surprised, in her training such use of the force had always required significant concentration and mindful discipline, but this, here and now, their bodies floating upwards together, was effortless.

He could sense the bewilderment of her thoughts as they continued to slowly rise. He’d known that united their strength was immeasurable, it was partly why he had coveted her so much before his true sentiments of love revealed themselves, an equal at his side, someone to bolster his own abilities. That person, Kylo Ren, felt like a distant memory now, but a memory that still dragged with it the carcass of consequence. 

With both their eyes still closed, minds in effortless concentration, their feet touched down again on to solid ground, coming up outside the temple ruins near their intact ships. Rey’s hands slowly slipped out of Bens’ as she opened her eyes, looking up at him with tenderness before tearing her eyes away to look over at the ships. “Do you think you’ll be able to squeeze into Red Fives cockpit with me while I pilot?” She asked hopefully, knowing in reality he would never fit, but she didn’t much like the other option. They had to be calculating in their return to the Resistance base, and for Ben to arrive in a TIE was not ideal.

Raising a brow Ben smirked, “I highly doubt that, and even if I could, I’m not sure I’d let you be pilot anyways.” A part of him wished they didn't have to go back to the base. That they could leave this planet together, forget the Resistance, forget the New Republic, forget the fact that he was likely now the most hunted man in the galaxy, and start a new life, a life together, the life they both deserved but never got. But the other part of him, the part that had confronted his wrongs, that suffered beneath the weight of his patricide, beneath the weight of those that had perished by his saber and his command, that part knew that to truly be himself, to truly be Ben Solo, meant atoning fully for the sins of Kylo Ren.

Rey’s smile faltered as she sensed the tempest of his troubled thoughts, of his hesitation, fear, and resolve at returning to the base. “Oh please, I am after all the captain of the fastest ship in the galaxy, but fair enough.” She beckoned for him to join her as she slowly began walking towards the ships. The sky above beginning to empty of the Resistance fleet.

Ben followed, all the euphoria of his resurrection gone. “You’re still flying that piece of junk?” He said, trying to keep his tone light, a distressed pit in his gut beginning to bubble with agitation.

Rey stopped as they arrived at the ships, spinning on her heel and looking up at him with concern, her eyes red and raw from her earlier tears and from the exhaustion she now felt engulfing her. She wanted to sleep, eat, drink and bathe. She wanted to see her friends again, see that they were safe and unharmed. She wanted to beseech whoever the acting general was to listen to her and trust her as she begged for Ben's pardon. And she wanted exactly what Ben did, to leave this place together, fly off into the sunset, but it was unrealistic, and they both knew it. She reached up, the idea of touching him a little awkward now that the adrenaline had waned, the happiness of realization subsided in to the reality of their situation. Ignoring her hesitation she took his hand and held it to her chest, wanting him to both feel the rhythm of her heart, but to also sense the sincerity of her words, “Listen to me. We’ve made it this far, haven't we? You and I? I know things will be a little, a little complicated but that’s okay because I see you. I really see you. I know you see me too, and from here on my…”

“... home is wherever you are.” Ben whispered softly, finishing Rey’s sentence as he gently pulled her in, wrapping his large arms around her slender frame and gingerly kissing the top of her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pacing wise, the first part of this chapter should have been attached to the last chapter, so my apologies for that.


	7. Chapter Seven: He Has Me

Rey could see the triumphant celebration below as she guided the X-Wing safely down to the base amongst the motley crew of other ships. She hadn’t had time to digest what had occured in the skies of Exogol, her focus on returning the light, destroying the dark, but setting down amongst the lush jungle on Ajan Kloss, the towering ferns and leaves as big as her, Rey felt overwhelmed, her heart touched that at last, the galaxy had been able to unite against tyranny. Their desperate call had been answered. Truly, it was a new era.

She remained in the cockpit collecting herself as others, having spotted her arrival, began to gather around the ship to share the revelry with her. Slowly she tugged off the oversized helmet. Forehead still encrusted with dry blood, dirty cheeks striped with tear streaks, hair clinging to the sweat by her temples, Rey took a deep breath. Waiting, hidden and tucked away, on the forest moon of Endor was Ben. They’d agreed that she would go on ahead to the base, talk with the acting general, whoever they were, and see what she could do, what she could say, so that he may return to her. Before leaving him she had sensed his hesitation and fear. Returning to the folds of the light, of democracy, of the Resistance, returning to all the commanders, officers, and pilots who had known him as a beacon of hope due to his parentage but were severely disappointed by his turn, these all weighed upon him. The biggest obstacle for him had been his parents, the fear of returning to them, but they were gone, and those demons assuaged, but here, at the base, there were many more.

A part of her worried he may not actually follow her back when the time came, but it mattered not. As much as it would tear her apart to be separated from her makeshift family, she realized she was willing to do it, if she had to, because it would mean being with him.

Opening the ship door she hopped out in one swift movement, people gathering around her, congratulating her on the win, on their victory. They had no idea what she had been through.

Rey had sensed both Finn and Poe as she’d approached the bases airspace, and it was they she searched for now, her neck straining above the celebrating crowd, the cheer tuned out completely. She needed to know they were in one piece. She needed to tell them what had happened. But she also needed to hold and be held by them, as only friends can, the simple comfort of their friendships able to prepare her for what lay ahead. She wanted them on her side. She wanted their support to convince the new general.

And then she spotted them as they too searched the throngs of Resistance fighters with crestfallen expressions that suddenly lit up with relief as they caught her eye. She ran to them as they ran to her, throwing her arms around them both with reprieve. The three of them held each other with high emotions as cheers continued to ring out through the jungle, until finally, with happy tears glistening in Rey’s eyes she pulled back. Nothing needed to be said. No words had to be exchanged. The three of them knew the journey it had taken to get to that moment, the three fates of three very different people that had joined in to one thanks to a little droid, and they were all overwhelmingly thankful that they had made it to the end of that journey together. A spice runner, a stormtrooper, and a scavenger, now heroes and saviors.  
Rey wiped the tears from her eyes with a chuckle as Finn did the same, Poe smirking as he rested his hand on Finns shoulder. But all too soon the moment had passed, and she needed to find the new general. “I’m sorry, we can celebrate properly later, but I need to find the acting General. Who did Leia appoint?”

Finn and Poe both turned to grin towards each other before, in unison, swinging their cheeky smiles at her.

“That my friend...,” Finn said, crossing his arms and lifting his chin up with satisfaction.

“...would be us.” Poe finished, pretending to toss a strand of long invisible hair over his shoulder.

***

"Are you pulling a fast one on us or?" Poe asked in disbelief as he slumped down on an ammunition box, pulling off the green scarf from around his neck and wiping his forehead with it. "Because this isn't funny Rey. This is very not funny."

"Scary man. Scary man." D-0 chimed in, rolling backwards, away from Rey to Finns side.

Finn, who had listened quietly, and patiently pulled another ammunition box up right in front of Rey and slowly sat down, elbows resting on his knees as he looked intently into her eyes.

They had stepped aside from the revelry, to a quiet cave that the Resistance had been using for storage.

Poe stood again with agitation, turning his back to them as he rested his hands on his hips, before suddenly turning back around, "Okay, so let's say for argument sake he has abandoned being Supreme Leader, and being on the uh, the dark side. Well what about everything else he's done? All the people he killed doing lackey work for Snoke? What about Starkiller base?" 

Rey turned away from Finns imploring gaze, uncomfortable by his silence, "You don’t understand. When I healed him, I didn’t just recconnect the tissue, and veins, but I saw inside of him, inside of his soul, I saw what I’d seen in visions years ago, that at the core he is good. As if it were laid out before my very eyes I could see his entire life up until that point. He was a scared, neglected and lonely young boy with power he didn't know how to control. Finn... Poe… him and I, we're the same, only… I was lucky enough to have you two to guide me to the light before it was too late. And, and now he has me." She took a deep breath looking from Finns fixed gaze of contemplation to Poe's stony, frustrated features. "He did what he was told to do. How many lives have we ourselves taken because of this war?"

Poe shook his head, crossing his arms, "Troopers."

"Troopers yes, troopers the same as Jannah, the same as Finn. Children taken from their mothers arms and conscripted into a war where they were told what to do. Like him."

Poe brought his hand to his mouth with furrowed brows, chewing on his fingernail for a second before gesturing a hand out towards Rey, "What about Han, Rey? What about the fact that he killed his own father?"

She'd been waiting for that. Hans death was the one thing she couldn't reconcile in her heart, the one thing she couldn't comprehend or understand. That split second decision, the thoughts and recollections of that moment were buried deep within him beneath a snarled mass of confused sorrow, but the aftermath, that she saw. With the ocean swelling in towering waves, soaking their bodies, her hand gently placed upon his torso as he looked at her with a mixture of discomfort, confusion, and hope, she had seen the impact of that decision in his psyche, almost as if invited to witness. That moment of horrible aberration haunted him like a festering wound, opening up in his nightmares, in his waking thoughts, the sight of his fathers aged and hopeful eyes staring back at him when he closed his lids. The effect that moment had on him she was privy to. He needed no retribution nor cell, the guilt and remorse were enough. “That, that was unforgivable, but he knows that, and he must live with it.”

Poe sat back down with defeat, running a hand through his hair as he roughly sighed, “What do you want us to do?”

She looked down at her hands, still bloody and dirty from Exogol. “I want you to give him a chance. I want the actions of his present to speak louder than the presumptions of his past. I want you to allow him to come here and to hear him out.”

Poe looked at Finn expectantly, his silence having drawn on too long. He hadn’t stopped staring in to Rey’s eyes. What he saw there, she wasn’t sure, but finally, after a brief silence he turned his head, looking behind him at Poe. “She’s telling the truth.” He said without inflection, his tone drained but resolute.

The corners of Rey’s lips turned up slightly, grateful for his understanding. She knew she was asking a lot. She knew that she put them in a difficult situation, tearing them between their loyalties to her, and their integrity as new generals. But she only requested they give him a chance. She would never ask any more from them.

“And what?” Poe interjected, his tone harsh with contempt at Finn, at what he viewed was a lack of conjecture from him. “You know she’s telling the truth because of some ‘feeling’ ”

“No,” Finn said, standing and putting a comforting hand on Rey's shoulder, “I know because she is our friend.”

***

Rey closed her eyes, the glowing sun heating her face as she stood in a small clearing in the jungle, the sounds of continued celebration making a low hum in the background. She concentrated her mind, imagining Ben’s familiar mental signature and searched for it, for him, her mind projecting out and crossing the space between them.

And then she saw him. He was sitting at the base of a towering tree with crossed legs, his lids closed. In his hands he held Luke’s lightsaber. As soon as he felt her his eyes sprung open, the dark pools of his irises fixing on her as his serene features changed to a warm grin. “Hi”

“Hi,” she smiled back, sitting down on the damp earth of the jungle so that she sat across from him. “The Ewoks haven’t given you any trouble?”

He shook his head slightly, dark waves of hair falling in front of his eyes, “No. They remember me from my childhood here.”

She smiled, trying to imagine that, his childhood, the young boy untouched by trouble playing in the dense forest among the charming creatures. They shyly grinned at each other for a moment, Rey lost in his features. Not only could she sense the lightness of his spirit, unburdened by the weight of a master, of an army, of expectation, of fighting someone he wanted to hold, but she could see it on his face too. His eyes were bright, alive and present. No longer were they marred by dark circles of sleeplessness. His pale cheeks were flushed by a sheepish blush. She wanted him there, physically there with her.

"Ben I, I talked with Poe and Finn who are the new Generals, Co-Generals. They've decided to let you come here, to argue your case in front of an assembly of Resistance officials. I'm not allowed to be there. They'll let you come unharassed if you surrender your lightsaber. But this is good. You can come.” She could see the wind catch his hair before suddenly feeling the same sensation on her cheek.

He nodded to himself, looking down at the lightsaber in his hands, long lashes casting shadows on his cheeks. He returned his gaze to Rey, “Run away with me,” he whispered on the breeze.

She knew he could sense the part of her that wanted just that, tugging at the unravelling string, but they both knew it could only be a dream, for now. “That’s not how you want to start a new life. Now please, come to Ajan Kloss because, I, it doesn’t feel right not having you here.” She wanted to say more, but she couldn’t quite find the words, too timid to explain to him how strange it felt to return to the base, a place she had lived for months, only for it to suddenly feel foreign and unfamiliar without him.

Ben leaned forward, his lips passing inches from her cheek and stopping by her ear. She could feel his warm breath on her skin, “As you wish.”


	8. Chapter Eight: Love

He sat in the cockpit of the TIE staring out at the awaiting and hostile crowd while he took a deep breath. One word hovered in his mind. He clung to it like a beacon. He knew it was the only way, the only way to her.

Atonement.

Before Ben's arrival at the base Finn and Poe had gathered everyone, the core Resistance members, and new allies, to warn them and explain the proposition on the table. There was obvious outrage, there was calm thoughtfulness, and from those that had known him before his turn to the dark, like Chewbacca, there had been silence, their minds too conflicted to lend their voice to the debate. It was decided that he would come that very day, speak to them all the next, say his peace and by a simple vote his fate would be decided; welcomed back to the fold or face a yet undecided punishment.

The sun was beginning to set on the horizon past the towering foliage as he jumped out of the TIE. He could feel the enmity of the crowd radiating over him as a stern yet serene expression washed across his face, his hands rising above his head to show that he was unarmed, except for Luke's lightsaber at his hip. 

He should have felt intimidated as their eyes bore into him, he should have felt like a beast in a cage, but he didn’t. Ben couldn’t quite describe it even to himself, but in some strange way he felt free. For the first time in a long time he felt wholly and completely free.

He took a hesitant step forward, unsure of where to go or what to do next, when suddenly Rey appaeared at his side. She had washed and changed, her hair tucked back in neat buns, skin clear of blood and dirt, but her face, her face was an almost expressionless mask as she formally took the saber from his belt. Anxious concern overtook him as she belted his saber, but as soon a she lay her hand on his upper arm to guide him through the crowd, the alarm vanished, replaced by a sudden image that had manifested in his mind. It was the moment before they had parted on Exogol, but seen through her eyes. He felt the deep rhythm of his heartbeat as she had heard it, cheek laying against his chest, before she'd pulled back and looked up at him. He saw himself for the first time through the eyes of another. The harsh lines and darkness of his eyes that he’d note in the mirror were no longer there. He looked not as a powerful being, as an enemy, as the leader of an empire, but simply as a man; he looked fragile.

He watched her every movement with curiosity, impressed at the ease at which she could do what she was doing, as well as general awe at the fact that not only present moment visuals and sounds could be projected to one another, but thoughts and memories too. The corners of her lips threatened to turn up as she projected reassurance through her touch and in to him as she began to lead him through the base. 

Rey's friends soon joined them to his other side, flanking him with authority, the new Generals, the deserter and the pilot. Ben could still recall his encounters with them, aerial battles shooting at Poe's X-Wing with his TIE Silencer, slicing Finn across the back with his saber on Starkiller base. He couldn’t understand why they would agree to this, but he knew, whatever their reasoning, Rey was a major component. Her friendship with them must have been the tipping point for them to listen to him, but Ben knew the rest would be his to negotiate. What would he have to say for himself, to show for himself other than what was most obvious, a moral turn of heart by a man in love.

Suddenly he spotted a familiar face among the crowd, towering above the humans, and all of Rey’s comforting reassurance vanished from within him, pushed out as a knot formed in his gut. Chewie had been there in his childhood as a friend and father figure. He'd been there the moment his mother had told him she would be sending him away to train with Luke, an uncle he barely knew. Chewie had seen the tears he'd shed as he protested, begging Leia to stay with her, begging her to let him continue training as a pilot, that he would never use his powers again if it meant he could stay. Chewie was there too to witness what he'd done to Han. The inside of Ben's head rang with the Chewies anguished roar, the scar on his torso that Chewie had given him burning with remembrance. He could have killed him in that moment, shot him square in the chest, but he hadn’t. Chewbacca had spared his life. Ben looked away, too ashamed to meet his gaze. 

He was led to a small cave at the far end of the base where he would have to await his trial in the morning. With only one entrance and exit to the shallow cave he was shackled with a pair of stun cuffs, provided food, and put under watch by two armed Resistance members.

***

He sat up, heart racing, sweat clinging to his face as he gasped for breath. It took Ben a moment to shake off his disorientation and make sense of his surroundings. He sat on the damp earth, back resting against the stony exterior wall of the cave entrance, wrists cuffed before him. Flanking him were two Resistance members who had volunteered as guards, their blasters at the ready, their stances prepared, their expressions startled by his sudden and violent awakening.

The jungle around the base was cast in darkness as night had fallen, bringing with it continued celebration. Resistance fighters and allies had gathered for a feast, their music and merriment carried out into the night. But Ben couldn’t hear them, his labored breaths echoing through his head, blocking out all other sounds. 

It had been no dream. It had been no nightmare. It was a memory that had returned to him as he’d drifted off, too exhausted to stave off sleep. 

Now he remembered, with raw recollection he had been shown.

***

Rey looked across the roaring bonfire as Finn laughed, throwing an arm around Poes neck. Rose and Connix stood with them, smirking as they ate from leafy plates. Cups of blue milk clinked together, bodies swayed with dance, in the far corner Chewbacca wrestled playfully with an armored Mandolorian, while nearest to Rey Lando dictated a chapter of his Calrissian chronicles to a group of ex-stormtroopers. The party was in full swing, and while everyone was distracted, Rey quietly snuck away.

She could feel his body as if it were an extension of hers, and although she had joined in on the celebration, thoughts distracted by his proximity the entire time, the moment she’d felt his panic she had excused herself from conversation and left.

Despite being appointed the one to escort him through the base, a political move that showed she was both allied with him, but prepared to contain him if need be, Finn and Poe had decided that Rey shouldn't be allowed visitation until after Bens trial. She'd accepted their terms, knowing she'd break them as soon as she had the chance. It was cruel to leave him shackled, guarded, and essentially alone while celebration raged.

She crept between the ships, past the main control centre, and through a small patch of jungle, pushing aside the enormous leaves and ferns. Around her the night was full of song and the low hum of native critters making their own night symphony.

She peeked past the trunk of a vine covered tree. Be sat against the left side of the shallow cave, head resting against the stone with his eyes closed and chin turned up. Before him was a small fire, casting the cave and his figure in a dancing glow of yellow and shadow. At the mouth of the cave the two guards, Eli and Beaumont, chatted with animation, discussing their bravery in battle as they made sideways glances at Ben.

She stepped out from the trees, startling them, but enjoying the small grin that crept across Ben's cheeks, his head still tilted, eyes still closed, but mind recognizing hers instantly.

“Rey? You’re not supposed to be here.” Beaumont said, trying to sound stern, but lowering his blaster.

“You both are tired of guarding the prisoner.” She said, waving her hand in front of their faces, ignoring Beaumonts comment.

Eli and Beaumont looked at eachother, and then back at Rey, nodding, “We’re tired of guarding the prisoner.” They said in unison.

She couldn’t help but smirk, only feeling slightly guilty for using mind tricks on them, “You want to leave and join the party. You’re going to leave and join the party.”

They both holstered their weapons as their heads continued to nod, voices matching each others, “We want to leave and join the party. We’re going to leave and join the party.” And with that they waved their goodbyes and disappeared into the jungle, heading towards the celebration.

Once out of site Rey turned, catching Ben’s gaze as he stared up at her, the flickering light of the fire bringing alive a hint of pain behind his red eyes. “Is something wrong?” She asked plainly. She flicked her wrist, breaking the cuffs open.

Ben watched as they fell to the ground. He was still in shock. He stood, staring at her with awe. She'd gone through time for him. She transversed in to the past so that he may live. He wanted to lift her up, take her in to his arms. He thought he'd known her love when she healed him on the Death Star, when her twinkling eyes had locked on his lips before her own, but he'd seen it had no boundaries. Keeping his distance while rubbing his sore wrists together he stood by her side, joining her in the moonlight. “You sensed that did you?”

She nodded silently, imploring him with her eyes to explain. The sensation had been overwhelming, it was panic and confusion, then love, strong and grasping at her. Something had changed within him, the hesitation to be happy was gone, she only felt calm resolve, as if what was unsteady ground had solidified beneath his feet. As if the path before him was made clear.

"Rey I had a dream, rather, it was less a dream and more of a memory." He looked up at dazzlingly bright moon, trying to abate his emotions, the sight of her face,l was too much to bear, he feared her wouldn't fumble in explaining. He grasped for the words as he took a step closer to her, his body wanting to be nearer to hers. "I remembered. I can't explain it, and even now I don't understand but I was gone, I left the living force, and I was one with the cosmic force. There was this vast nothingness. I've heard of a place, the world between worlds. I believe I was there, but partly. It was as if I was lost within, and not a part of it. I could feel my mother, feel Luke, and even feel my grandfather Vader, but I couldn't see them, and when I called to them there was no reply. But you, I heard you.” He looked back down at her, arm rising at his side as if to touch her, but lowering. Her voice had been like a beacon in the fog. “You cried my name out with, with such sorrow. It broke you, and in that nothingness I too wept, every tear you shed was mine, every anguished cry I shared, every twisting pain in the chest that made it hard to breath I too felt."

She watched as his jaw tightened, as his lips began to tremble with emotion, "Ben I don't understand, what broke me?" She’d never seen him like this before, not even on Exogol, so overcome with pathos, he could barely speak, and yet, this was the most she’d ever heard him speak. His hoarse words spilling out.

He looked her in the eyes, gulping, "My death."

Rey's brows furrowed with confusion, her body moving closer to his as she tried to understand what he was telling her, "But you came back."

Ben shook his head, turning to stare towards the crackling fire, long lashes casting shadows on his cheeks, half of him blanketed in the glow of the ivory moonlight, the other obscured in hues of orange from the fire. "Not the first time." He paused for a moment, taking deep breaths, looking back at her, "Once I had tuned in to you I could see you, be with you even when you didn't know I was there. And then one day you came back, back in time. And I, I saw what you did, for me, for us." Suddenly, blinking, a single tear passed the barrier of his lashes and silently slid down his cheek as he took a deep breath. "Life passed from myself to you, then from you to me. And I saw you, I saw you laying there alone, dying, and I hope with everything that you heard me, that you knew I witnessed your sacrifice before I returned to my body."

He wasn't making any sense. He never died. And neither had she. They both had returned to each other. Rey searched the dark pools of his eyes for clarification, until he reached out.

Her skin felt soft and warm against his as he gently took her hand, doing what she'd done upon his arrival, project his memories.

Then she saw.

She saw it all. His sudden death, erasing the happiness of their kiss. She saw her tear stained cheeks on Tatooine, she saw the cave of portals on Ahch-To, her mental and physical struggles to keep him alive, to keep him fighting, and then she saw herself laying on her back, staring up with tears in her eyes and dirt on her cheeks, the life fading out of her until her clothes had fallen empty to the ground.

She blinked with shock as the scenes he had projected into her mind vanished. Her breathing picked up, sharp breaths sucked in and out, eyes filling with tears, “I lost you?” Crossing the space between them she wound her arms around him, cheek laying against his heaving chest. A part of her couldn’t believe what he had shown her, but deep down she knew, every move, every decision, every action, she would have taken. If he had truly died that day, she would have fought to find him again. She couldn’t believe she had succeeded.

[Scene Inspiration Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ3poU70uIE ]

Ben enclosed her in the warmth of his arms, holding her back. He pressed his cheek against the top of her head, tears flowing freely, “I was ready and willing to do whatever it took in there to keep you safe. I would have happily died for you. I still would.” He buried his face in her neck, his body shaking as he held her tighter, “Rey I, I…”

“I know,” she whispered softly. She knew because she felt it flowing from him out of every pore, devoted adoration that reflected her own. That’s what it was, this is what he fought to express.

Ben pulled back, bringing his hands to rest on her cheeks as he shook his head, more tears spilling across his face in a deluge of emotion. He had to say it. She needed to hear it, fully hear it as no one had before her. "Please," he whispered, "please, let me finish." He took another deep breath, "I hated you because you had everything I had given up. I hated you because you were the person I was supposed to be. I hated you because I saw myself in you. Every mention of your name, every intelligence, would send me into a rage. But then I saw inside your mind, I saw my own loneliness, my own search for meaning and acceptance reflected back to me. I saw that vision of us, side by side and cast towards the dark, and I wanted it. I told myself it was the power I coveted, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t the power I was after when I searched the galaxy with my mind for you. It wasn’t the power I wanted when I listened to the depth of your loneliness while you trained with Luke. And it wasn’t power I wanted when I reached my hand out for you. You have to understand, you have to know, I killed Snoke because I would rather have betrayed my master than have you die. I searched for you from Pasaana, to Kajimi, to the Endor system, I did it to warn you about Palpatine, because I would rather have seen my new empire fall than see you fall. You, the girl I’d heard so much about, the only person who saw the cracks in my mask, saw me for what I was, a monster, saw what was inside of me, a frightened boy, and saw who I could be again, Ben Solo. Rey you have to know, I, I,” Finally. Finally he was able to say the words he’d yearned to hear, the words he hadn’t the courage to say to his mother, his father, the words he had choked on atop the death star, confronting the memory of Han, the words he now had the comfort and courage to convey, “I love you.”

With that he bent down as she reached up on her toes, their lips colliding with fervor, all awkward hesitation gone as body yearned for body. It was a kiss not of happy relief as their first one had been. No, it was a kiss of passionate resolution, a kiss of love, in its purest, overwhelming form. It was a kiss of two souls acknowledging that they were one. How generous life had been to make them one soul divided by two bodies, so that they may hold and be held by one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go!


	9. Chapter Nine: Binary Suns

"How do we know that everything you've told us is true and factual?" Commander d'Acy asked, her normally quiet voice booming amongst the crowd gathered to hear Ben's testimony. They stood in a clearing, packed bodies surrounding his isolated figure in the centre. The dazzling sunlight of day shone down upon them.

Ben, who'd been sitting, stood, turning in place as he tried to look upon everyone's face. He'd been living too long amongst the seething and vengeful leadership of the First Order that he’d half expected someone to attack him. But no, he was listened to with respect. It had moved him, moved him to realize that these were the people he had hunted, the very people who provided him the open platform to make his case. He'd told his whole story, knowing his childhood, his trauma, was no excuse for his actions, but hoping nonetheless that he could be forgiven. Now he had one final task, one final leap towards salvation; he had to prove his words.

"I will prove to you that what I have said is legitimate if you are willing to experience the truth. I have a force ability that allows me to project into the mind of another my thoughts and memories. I invite anyone and everyone who is willing to experience this to come, place your hand on my body, and let me show you the weight of my regret." He extended his arms out in appeal.

A loud murmur broke out. A moment passed and no one moved, not even the deserter and pilot. Rey watched on from the back of the crowd, clearly biting her tongue, keeping herself from exclaiming out her indignation. But then suddenly the crowd began to shift as a tall and large body pushed their way to the front.

Chewbacca stepped in to the empty space surrounding Ben. Ben's lips tightened as his jaw shook. They looked at each other with calm understanding and Ben knew, he knew he was forgiven. Chewie crossed the space between them, raising his furry arm and placing his hand atop Ben's head, just as he'd done in Ben's childhood; it was a loving gesture, an indication of his absolution and his trust in Ben.

Ben closed his eyes, projecting outwards in rapid succession his entire life, from his earliest memories to his fragility now, begging for his sins to be pardoned so that he can finally live again, live in love and happiness with Rey.

Suddenly he felt another hand hesitantly touch his arm, then another on his shoulder, and then another and another. Soon Ben was surrounded as bodies packed in close, their hands stretched out to bear witness. He sensed the tenor of their thoughts, the curiosity to see inside the mind of the villainous Kylo Ren, the want to prove mistrust was justified, but pervading those was the genuine hope that he spoke the truth so that the war may end with an ally and not an execution.

After some time the hands slowly left his body, and he stood once again, alone at the centre of the crowd. 

He opened his eyes as Poe's voice rang out in the clearing, "Cast your vote now. By a simple show of hands, raise yours now if you think this man should be forgiven."

Ben held his breath, watching with teary eyes as a sea of hands began to rise around him. Hands of every color, of different species. Only a few remained down, but the vast majority had reached up, lending their vote to his absolution.

"HE'S PARDONED!" Finn yelled, his eyes on the verge of tears, so moved had he been by what he'd seen in Ben's head, by his love for Rey, and by the weight of his regret.

Poe stared back at him, giving him the slightest nod of concession as cheers began to ring out from the crowd.

Chewbacca called out with happiness as he grabbed Ben around the waist and picked him up off the ground with a hug. Ben laughed, the sensation still so new to him. He hugged Chewie back, profound relief encircling him.

Still in the Wookies furry arms he caught Rey's eyes as she approached, a happy grin on her lips. All the acceptance and belonging he would ever need were in those eyes, but to be forgiven by the Resistance meant he could truly share his life with her. Start a new chapter, do the things he'd never gotten to, normal things.

He could live again.

"I think I've got it from here." Rey beamed, placing a hand on Chewies arm.

Chewbacca set Ben down and Rey took his hand, interlacing her fingers with his as the sun shone down upon her glowing features. "Han and Leia would be proud. They'd be so proud Ben."

Ben's eyes filled with tears. He knew they would have been. Both of them had given their lives to try and change his. Even in darkness, their love never faltered. He saw that now. That it had always been there, he'd just been too blinded to see it.

Rey tugged his hand gently, "Come, I want to show you something." Pulling him along through the crowds of Resistance fighters nodding their approval at him, she brought him to an open part of the base where most of the ships had been docked. Winding around the battle-hardened spacecrafts she suddenly stopped, "I want you to have it."

Ben, who'd been lost in the mesmerizing brightness of her smile, allowing himself to be tugged along, looked up. Situated against the thick greenery of the jungle, it's metal hull rusted and damaged but standing strong, was the Millennium Falcon. Ben let out a deep breath, vision blurring with fresh tears. He left her side, placing a hesitant palm upon the cool Correllian metal. In his youth he'd dreamed of one day being the captain of his fathers ship. One of his earliest memories was sitting in the cockpit with Han, pretending to fly, looking into his father's warm eyes with admiration. He'd come to despise the sight of it for it had become a symbol of everything he had given up, but now, now it was the symbol of a new life, a new path. At last the past had died, and along with it, so had Kylo Ren.

***

The binary suns were beginning their descent in the Tatooine sky, casting the desert in blues and pinks as the Millennium Falcon sat next to the long abandoned remnants of a home.

Rey set down Luke and Leia’s lightsabers upon the small square of leather. She looked up at Ben, giving him a nod of loving reassurance, and with sorrowful eyes he placed a set of aurodium-plated gold dice between the lightsabers. It was time to say goodbye to their mentors, to a trio that had fought to save the galaxy, and now, with peace reigning free from the unknown regions to the deep core, they could finally be laid to rest. Together Rey and Ben slowly wrapped the bundle of memories, knowing Han, Luke, and Leia would still live on in story, myth, and legend. Rey looked up in to Ben’s solemn eyes as they set the bundle down upon the warm Tatooine sand together, using their minds to bury the past.

They stood, eyes locked one another with thoughtful devotion, when suddenly the sound of an approach broke their gaze.

Rey stepped forward as an old woman neared, leaning upon a cane, her pack creature loaded with items beside her. “There’s been no one for so long. Who are you?” She asked in an aged voice.

“Rey,” Rey responded, recalling the very same question she’d been asked on Pasaana, but confident now she’d know how to respond.

“Rey who?” The woman asked.

She turned, looking over her shoulder as Ben's face brightened with a smile, his dark hair blowing gently in the breeze. She turned back to the woman with certainty, “Rey Solo.”

With those words Rey couldn't help but remember the moment she'd found Luke's lightsaber in the basement of Maz's cantina. Her words still echoed in Rey's mind,  _ 'Dear child. I see your eyes. You already know the truth. Whomever you're waiting for on Jakku... they're never coming back... But... there's someone who still could.' _ At the time she'd thought Maz spoke of Luke, of his return, but now she knew it had been Ben. It was Ben's return Maz had seen, and it was him she spoke of when she'd told Rey,  _ 'The belonging you seek is not behind you... it is ahead.' _ She'd been so right, so very right, and now Rey had found it, belonging. They both had, in each other. 

But leaving the base, searching for their own kyber crystals together, they had realized that they wanted other lost children struggling with abilities they did not know how to use, to also find belonging. Amidst the sweeping green planes and vast lakes of Naboo they established a training school for a new generation of Jedi, determined to provide the love and security they wished they’d felt as children. Determined to create a Jedi order unlike it’s flawed predecessor. An order focused only on letting the light thrive in the galaxy. An order unconcerned with politics. An order without rigid discipline. An order of open honesty. And an order where one may love without shame. With Finn and Poe remaining behind on Naboo, Rey and Ben had left in search of those that needed them, their coordinates now set for Canto Bight to try and find their next pupil, an urchin boy working in the fathier stables.

Ben gently took Rey’s hand in his, the binary suns setting in dazzling hues of orange on the horizon, and lifted the back of her hand up to his lips. He kissed her soft skin tenderly, the simple gesture expressing the immensity of his love for her, a love that had saved him. A love that had saved them both. A love that had brought peace and balance to the galaxy. With the sunset casting their figures in silhouette, they walked hand in hand back towards the Millennium Falcon, closing one chapter in the saga of Skywalker, and opening another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so much for reading! This fic has been an absolute pleasure to write yes, but has meant a lot to me to finish after TROS. It's healed my wounds and hopefully it has healed yours as well.
> 
> If you enjoy my writing, I have a post-TLJ fic that is coming up on its 31st chapter soon that has been my love child for the past two years. Here is a link:
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/13374888/chapters/30630453
> 
> Again, thank you for reading.
> 
> Your loving author,
> 
> JG


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